Labour’s Budget dilemma
The tension between a pledge to limit tax rises and the party’s rule against borrowing for day-to-day spending is…
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Make or Break
Letter of the week: The public deserves better
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Who made Keir’s cut?
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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The Alex Salmond I knew
From a lean radical in the early 1980s, he evolved into a political titan.
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Colin Greenwood’s tour diary: checking in with Radiohead and suiting up for Nick Cave
The bassist on becoming a Bad Seed, reconvening with old friends, and how life on the road has changed.
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Would Kemi Badenoch be worth the risk for Conservatives?
She might be “box-office”, but the Tory leadership candidate might prove too volatile for a party in crisis.
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Keir Starmer and the perils of consensus
In trying to please everyone, the Prime Minister risks pleasing no one.
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Kamala Harris’s convictions are still a puzzle
The Democratic candidate has U-turned on some issues and aligned herself with Donald Trump on others. What does she…
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Will the Daily Telegraph’s new buyer threaten its independence?
Dovid Efune has entered into exclusive talks to buy the title. Plus: the shrinking Standard and Badenoch woos the…
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Caution should prevail on the assisted dying bill
It is far easier to give the right to an assisted death than to take it away.
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Rachel Reeves’ make-or-break Budget
Can the Chancellor save the Labour government – and mend Britain’s broken economy?
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Taking on the Treasury
Rachel Reeves has more power than any chancellor in recent history. She should use it.
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The two sides of Boris Johnson
His memoir Unleashed contains surprising moments of candour – but they are swept away on a tide of shameless…
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Malcolm Gladwell’s cult of smartness
The educated rationalists addressed by Revenge of the Tipping Point are sometimes the dumbest – and baddest – of…
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The resurrection of John le Carré
In Karla’s Choice the late spy novelist’s son Nick Harkaway has revived George Smiley – but he cannot match…
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Marie Curie’s modest revolution
A reluctant celebrity who coined the term “radioactivity”, she transformed the perception of women in science.
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Alan Garner’s living tapestry
The novelist’s creative life was woven from a childhood in northern England’s mythic landscape.
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The best of the academic presses for autumn 2024
The New Statesman’s highlights, from Greek mythology to 1980s pop-synth and drawing to Christian nationalism
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Myths of the great statesmen
New studies of Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson show the rewards and perils of political biography.
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Richard Dawkins, the gene genie
The great scientist strays into speculation in The Genetic Book of the Dead, his latest defence of his “selfish…
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The making of Barbara Kingsolver
In Holding the Line, the author’s newly republished account of the 1983 Arizona miners’ strike, the novelist and the…
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The NS Poem: Now
A new poem by Margaret Atwood.
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The Apprentice: a grotesque, compelling Trump satire
You may think you never want to see a film about Donald Trump. But this tale of his relationship…
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The unadulterated pleasures of Rivals
This Disney+ take on Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles is very funny and deeply satisfying. And what a multiplicity of…
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The Lehman Trilogy is storytelling at its finest
In Sam Mendes’s revival, an epic narrative of American capitalism is translated into thrillingly stripped-back theatre.
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An ode to aimless wandering
After years of trudging along paths, I’ve learned to stop seeing their completion as an accomplishment.
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Thought Experiment 4. Becoming a Vampire
Entering into a transformative experience means making a decision about what kind of “you” you want to be.
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Confronting the achingly cool with an aching heart – and aching gums
My eldest child has summoned my mouth infection and I to Brighton.
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We can’t all be geniuses
The word is overused. Most of us are minor talents.
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This England: Heads up
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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Kate Summerscale Q&A: “Best piece of advice? ‘It won’t seem so bad in the morning’”
The author on crushing on Steve McGarrett and learning to find joy in the things she tries to avoid.
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